Israel

Among the several Yiddish words for “angry” is “broyges.” For the purposes of alliteration and anomaly, I want to apply it to the indignation reflected in former Communist Party voter and Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan’s recent tweet on Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel last week. Brennan was angry…with President Trump and with Israel. For both he seems to harbor a certain animus. Deaths in Gaza result of utter »

The worse than worthless United National Human Rights Council delivered its ritual condemnation of Israel today in a special session on Gaza. Before the vote was taken, Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow Colonel Richard Kemp spoke on behalf United Nations Watch. In light of the recent NBC News hit piece on Gatestone, I should add that Colonel Kemp’s statement is more informative than everything NBC News has on offer today. »

Steven Schmidt, the Republican strategist, says that President Trump has blood on his hands for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Former CIA director John Brennan seems to agree. It’s true that the same day the new U.S. embassy opened in Jerusalem, Israeli forces killed approximately 60 Palestinians who were part of a mob engaged in violent acts and trying to breach a border fence. But to blame the deaths »

You can see why NBC News might want to smear the work of the Gatestone Institute (the dirty work I wrote about here yesterday). Gatestone has posted Pierre Rehov’s video Behind the Smoke Screen on Hamas’s Gaza production (below). From inside Gaza, Rehov reports the reality of the so called “peaceful demonstrations.” He invites viewers: “Watch Hamas hate speeches. See how they build their propaganda at the expense of brainwashed, »

Today the U.S. opened our new embassy in Jerusalem. It is about time: for quite a few years, Congress has resolved that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, but one president after another has deferred recognizing that reality, bowing, apparently, to the international consensus that every country on Earth except Israel has the right to designate its capital. I wrote here: The location of Israel’s capital is a question of fact, not »

Within the hour we will move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. It’s a big day for Israel and the United States. Hamas wants it known that its followers are unhappy about it. Hamas terrorists are staging assaults on Israel today in response. They would like to kill the Jews across the border, but they will be almost as happy to get their own civilians killed. It’s all for the »

The IDF has posted a video of a direct hit on a Syrian SA22 air defense battery in connection with its response to the 20 rockets launched by Iranian forces from Syria toward Israel last night. As the Jerusalem Post puts it, “the video appears to be filmed from a camera loaded on the Israeli rocket. The rocket flies down toward the Syrian SA22, a combined short to medium range »

Caroline Glick makes a point about Israel’s haul of Iranian documents that I haven’t seen expressed elsewhere: The physical seizure and removal of these documents by Israeli forces exposed not only the Iranian regime’s perfidy, but also its weakness. Put simply: The Jews breached [the regime’s] vaunted defenses and made off with a half ton of incriminating documents without being discovered. There can be no greater humiliation. That Israel intended »

I’ve been waiting for an account of how the Mossad carried off their heist of Iranian nuclear secrets from inside a warehouse in Tehran. I’m sure at some point—though we may have to wait a while—we’ll get the real and complete story. So far about the only account I’ve seen is in the Times of Israel, whose story today says Mossad agents had the Iranians on their tail as they »

Speaking in English, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyhau announced the recovery of a massive cache documenting Iran’s nuclear program: a half ton of documents and related materials removed from Iran. Video of the announcement is embedded below via the Prime Minister’s office; the text is posted here. Alexandra Fulbright reports on the announcement for the Times of Israel here. Noa Landau reports on it for Haaretz here. Twitchy collects instant reactions »

Taking a quick look around online this morning, the most illuminating piece I can find on last night’s strike on the Syrian army base in Hama is Avi Issacharoff’s analytical Times of Israel column “Resonant Syria strike suggests coordinated US-Israel message to Russia and Iran.” Here is the opening of Isacharoff’s analysis: Hours after a mysterious “earthquake” — 2. 6 on the Richter scale — registered on the devices of »

News out in the last few hours of a large explosion at a Syrian army base in Hama, where Iranian military are said to have a presence, supposedly the work of an Israeli missile strike. So far there is scant coverage by the cable news networks, and AP’s first report is pretty sketchy—maybe everyone is hungover from last night’s bacchanal at the White House Correspondents Dinner? In any case, the video »

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman also spoke at the AIPAC policy conference last week (video below, text here). My friends who attended the conference and commended Ambassador Haley’s speech to me also commended Friedmans’s. They declared his speech, if not the best, at least a close contender. Like Ambassador Haley, Friedman warmed up with a contrast between then and now: “Now, the events that I just noted are not »

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley addressed the multitude assembled at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington this past Monday (video below, text here). I am reliably informed by my friends who were there that, with the possible exception of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech, Ambassador Haley’s remarks constituted the highlight of the event. They also emphasized to me that you had to have been there to understand why. »

Herb Keinon, writing in the Jerusalem Post, argues that Russia could be a big loser if, as seems increasingly likely, Israel is drawn into a fight with Iran in Syria. He explains: Russia moved forces into Syria in 2015 with one purpose in mind: Save Syrian President Bashar Assad. And since then, Moscow has spent billions of rubles and spilled Russian blood to do just that: Help the Assad regain »

Yesterday, as Omri Ceren reported, the Israeli air force struck in Syria after Iran sent a drone into Israel. The Israelis lost a fighter jet, the first time in 30 years an Israeli jet has been lost in combat. On the plus side, Israel reportedly inflicted serious damage on multiple air defense batteries and four Iranian positions in Syria including the mobile command center from which the Iranian drone was »